Mid Sweden University

This study investigated links between vocabulary strategy use and the range of vocabulary used by learners. Overall, all students participating in this study showed a tendency towards using mostly guessing, encoding strategies, and dictionary use, which was primarily the use of Google translate followed by the use of Swedish-English dictionary and in addition, asking26someone. Of the activation strategies, only memorizing words was used frequently and the rehearsal strategies were rarely used. Only a minor distinction between the use of strategy types between high-achieving and low-achieving students was identified. High achievers tend to use strategies more frequently, and the hypothesis that using effective vocabulary strategies frequently may positively affect the vocabulary growth is supported to some extent. Furthermore, the quantity of strategies affecting the increasing of vocabulary supports the second hypothesis (see section 1.1).

Future research concerning the vocabulary learning strategies’ influence on the student’s vocabulary range should include additional students to the study in order to receive more valid and reliable results. The number of students was a limitation in this study. Also, a larger number of essays from each student may also contribute to more reliable data where a larger quantity of words is analysed, making the result more valid. Moreover, there could be more strategies included in the survey, similar to Gu and Johnson’s (1996) study, which may give further information about the students’ strategy use. This study limited the strategies in the survey to adjust to the participants, where an extensive survey would not have given the requested answers. Although the present study was limited, it suggests that there may be a link between vocabulary strategy use and the range of vocabulary a student uses, and that further investigation into this relationship would be of value.